It’s not just Wal-Mart urging Mayor Vincent C. Gray to veto the “living wage” bill passed by the D.C. Council last week. Executives from six national retailers posted a letter to Gray Wednesday urging him to reject the bill, calling it “misguided” and “unfairly discriminatory” and saying it “does nothing to address the proposed goal of improving job quality and opportunity in the District.”

July 18, 2013

It’s not just Wal-Mart urging Mayor Vincent C. Gray to veto the “living wage” bill passed by the D.C. Council last week. Executives from six national retailers posted a letter to Gray Wednesday urging him to reject the bill, calling it “misguided” and “unfairly discriminatory” and saying it “does nothing to address the proposed goal of improving job quality and opportunity in the District.”

Top government affairs executives from Home Depot, Target, AutoZone, Lowe’s, Walgreens and Macy’s signed the letter. All the companies have stores in the District, save Lowe’s, which has been considering opening a store in the Fort Lincoln neighborhood.

The executives do not threaten outright, as Wal-Mart has, to close stores or cease plans to expand in the city. But they said that following the passage of the living wage bill, known as the Large Retailer Accountability Act, “any future plans for retail expansion in the city must be revisited.”